BleepingComputer.com: How To Disable Automatic Restarts When Windows Crashes

How to Disable Automatic Restarts

Guide Overview

This guide will explain how to disable automatic restarts. This will cause Windows XP to stop on a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and display the error message. you can then copy down the error message to help analyze the problem with your system. The link listed in the References gives more detail on the needed information.

References
How To Use The Event Viewer


Instructions

• Click 'Start'
  
• Click on 'Run'
  
• Type in "sysdm.cpl" (without the quotes) and press Enter
  
• Click on the 'Advanced' tab
  
• Click on the 'Startup and Recovery' Settings button
  
• Uncheck 'Automatically restart', then click on OK
  
• Click on OK to exit the System applet, then close the Control Panel.
  
• Reboot for the changes to take effect

NOTE: There is an option to do this when your system reboots into menu that allows you to choose Safe Mode (if you have SP2 installed) - just scroll down the list and you'll see it.

Here are some registry edits that will accomplish the same thing:

CAUTION!!!
If you're not comfortable with the registry - don't try the following registry edits!!! If you're reckless enough to try it - backup your registry. FYI - there's no easy way to restore the backup copy without exiting Windows - it won't let you update sections of the registry that are being used by Windows. Finally, I refuse to be responsible if you hose your system - but I do offer a money back guarantee for the fee that I charge for my services

DISABLE AUTOMATIC RESTART:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl]
"AutoReboot"=dword:00000000

ENABLE AUTOMATIC RESTART:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl]
"AutoReboot"=dword:00000001